


unanimously

by aisu10



Category: Chronicle (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Codependency, Fix-It, Gen, Happy Ending, M/M, Multi, Telepathic Bond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-05
Updated: 2016-06-05
Packaged: 2018-07-12 11:36:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7101625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aisu10/pseuds/aisu10
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>matt helps steve talk andrew down in the storm and the three boys become closer than ever before.</p>
            </blockquote>





	unanimously

matt has 5 missed calls, 12 text messages, and a massive nosebleed. andrew's voice is echoing in his head like a broken record, wordless and incoherent but desperate, and matt is presented with a choice. he can stay with his gorgeous, topless girlfriend, or go be there for his cousin, who's always been there for him. the phone is heavy in his hands. his throat is clogged.   
  
"i've... i've got to go."   
"wait, what -- why?"   
"andrew needs me."   
  
when steve flies into the storm, matt is right there with him. together, they talk andrew down, prove to him that they care about him and that his father is full of shit. they all go back to matt's house to stay the night and listen as andrew, wet and shaking, finally opens up to them, pours his heart out about everything he's kept bottled up inside for so long. they learn about his abusive father, his dying mother; about the bruises he's been hiding, about his constant fear and growing darkness. they both promise to be there for him. they both promise to be his light.   
  
the three of them pool their money to help pay for karen's medicine. between part-time jobs and schoolwork, steve and matt apply for colleges. andrew puts his powers to good use, makes extra money doing magic tricks on city street corners, starts using meditation to control himself. at the end of the year, karen is well enough to come to andrew's graduation, see him smiling next to his two best friends as he gets his diploma.   
  
but despite all efforts to save her life, karen still dies. her funeral is beautiful, put together by family who cares. matt and steve hold andrew while he cries and make sure he knows it's not his fault.   
  
andrew turns eighteen a day later. it's the worst birthday of his life but it's also a new beginning. he moves out of richard's house and into the apartment steve is renting for college with money his parents gifted him for graduation. it's sort of a shitty way of apologizing for the divorce they're getting, but the fact that andrew has a loving home now makes it all worth it. matt tries to go to college in the state over but transfers to steve's school barely a month later when he keeps hearing steve and andrew's voices in his head and can't focus on his studies. he moves in with them. the trio is back together again.   
  
andrew gets a job flying pizzas around the city. at home, he makes a mess on the living room floor fixing college kids' computers for cheap. he helps out with the expenses any way he can while matt and steve shuffle back and forth from school. they try to have a social life, they really do; in the first few weeks, matt and steve show up at a couple parties, try to get to know their classmates, meet some new people. but it doesn't feel right without andrew, and all their interactions are awkward and detached. eventually they give up trying to socialize and just come home every night and collapse on the futon to watch whatever movie andrew's picked out for them. somehow he always knows exactly which ones they'll like.   
  
it's only a few more weeks before matt breaks up with casey. they tried the long distance thing for a while, but they found the emotional distance was harder to overcome than the physical. matt just doesn't feel like he needs her, or whatever she was giving him, anymore. not now that he lives with andrew and steve.   
  
their lives start to come together after that. once they've cut themselves off from all others they can truly focus on the bond between them and how strong it's getting. they've been connected since the crystal gave them their powers but that connection has only grown over time and brought them closer together in both body and mind. they settle into a daily routine of leaving for school and work in the morning and convening at home in the evenings to eat dinner together. they notice that they all get hungry at the same time. they all need to use the toilet at the same time, too, which causes some problems in their one-bathroom apartment. they can feel each other's emotions as if they were their own, and quickly learn to read each other's thoughts, both of which help a lot in communicating with andrew. they start sharing dreams. eventually they can't stand the distance between the bedrooms and the couch and they all just pile together in the same bed, close enough to hear each other breathe. it's weird, and they know it, but they're happy. none of them have ever shared a bond so profound with another human being, and they're pretty sure no one else in the universe ever has.   
  
as much as steve and matt want to finish their degrees, they find themselves unsatisfied with what they're learning. the more they live together the more they realize that's all they want to do, and jobs in politics and philosophy just don't seem fulfilling anymore. they consider dropping out after their sophomore year. andrew supports the decision, but wants to know what they'll do next. they look into his bright blue eyes and see snow-capped mountains and suddenly know exactly what they're going to do.   
  
matt starts taking classes in foreign language and culture. steve signs up for a wilderness survival course just to be prepared. andrew watches national geographic at home on the floor while dozens of computer parts whizz around his head, determined to make as much money as he can to fund their trip. whatever furniture and junk they brought to the apartment, they sell on craigslist. they hardly needed it anyway, now that they all occupy one bedroom. they buy sleeping bags, thick coats, a big sturdy tent. everything they need to live out of backpacks in foreign countries. they share dreams of flying over the ocean, jumping trains, trying food from all over. andrew teaches them all how to meditate and feel connected with the world they're about to explore.   
  
summer comes and they leave everything behind. like andrew's eighteenth birthday, it's a new beginning. they make sure his twentieth is filled with smiles and glee as they fly over mountains and set a marshmallow on fire for him to blow out at their campsite that night. they really like camping. they fall in love with the stars, the crickets, the smell of the smoke and the pines, the warmth of three boys sprawled out across unzipped sleeping bags and each other inside the tent.    
  
from then on they move from place to place, flying and hopping and hitching rides, just trying to experience it all. andrew acts as navigator, reading the maps, leading them in v-formation across the sky. steve does all the talking, finding them places to stay and eat in foreign cities. matt is the language expert, translating steve's words inside his head before he says them. matt himself doesn't talk much and andrew hardly makes a sound, anymore. he just thinks it's easier to speak directly into his friends' heads, where nothing can be misinterpreted. it's the only way he's ever felt truly understood.   
  
the days stretch on. they see new places, try new things, meet new people, but at the end of the night they always end up curled together like the three of them are the only thing in the world. they breathe in synchronization, now, and their hearts all keep the same beat. sometimes they can't figure out which one of their minds a thought generated from and they often can't even determine where their physical bodies end and the others' begin. they've become one entity, one being, and they can't imagine how they ever lived any other way.   
  
eventually they make it to tibet.   
  
as they stand on the snowy mountaintop overlooking the monuments on the adjacent ridge, they find that, for a moment, their shared breath has been stolen away by awe. there's a feeling of intense satisfaction glowing inside all their chests, of culmination and achievement and belonging. andrew thought this would be where he'd find peace, but when he looks at the boys standing on either side of him, each a vital extension of himself, he knows that he's already found it. andrew's hot tears run down all their frozen cheeks and matt and steve wrap their arms around him, kiss his exposed skin, whisper into his mind that  _ they made it.  _ andrew never wants to leave their embrace, never wants to be anywhere but with the two of them, living unanimously.


End file.
